


Numbers

by mgs3



Category: SKAM (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-01
Updated: 2017-08-01
Packaged: 2018-12-09 18:43:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,011
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11674923
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mgs3/pseuds/mgs3
Summary: Yousef and Vilde are teachers at Nissen and he stays at work late because he's angry at Sana.





	Numbers

If couple of years ago anyone had told him that’s how he would spend his Friday evening now, he would have just laughed at them. But here he was, sitting in the dimly-lit teachers room, checking essays of his students. It was almost 8 p.m. and he still had twelve papers to read and grade. He made himself tea and was now taking a break, looking out of the window. He was deep in his thoughts when he heard a _ping_ . He looked at his phone:

**  
** **Sana**

_When can we expect you at home?_

 

So it’s not even “When will you come home?”, it’s already “when can we _expect_ you”.

He started furiously typing _I don’t know because I have work to do and it would take me twice as long to do it if I come back home because it’s so loud there and I can’t concentrate and besides you said in the morning that it’s okay because you’ll take care of them tonight so what’s your problem?_

He deleted all of this. He could already see in his mind how this conversation would go. Sana would text _May I remind you that it was you who wanted so many kids!_ and then he would write something like _So what? Are you telling me you didn’t want to have kids with me?_ and then they would both regret it and he really didn’t want to fight with her. Especially now.

So he just texted:

_I still have some essays to grade, I’ll need another hour or two._

 

_Ping  
_ **Sana**

_Okay. Buy some curry on your way home._

 

He wasn’t sure if she was teasing him or not. On the one hand she had terrible cravings for spicy food lately, which was apparently common for pregnant women, but on the other hand he was sure there were still some red hot chilli peppers in the kitchen so the ‘curry’ thing might be just a subtle way of telling him she’s angry at him.

He shook all these thoughts off his head and started reading another essay. He didn’t even raise his head when someone walked into the teacher’s room.

“What are you still doing here so late?” Vilde asked.

“Midterm essays.” he answered pointing to the pile of papers in front of him. “And you know, I could ask you the same thing.”

“Kosegruppa. Last rehearsal before the Easter break. You and Sana will come to the premiere, right?”

“Mmmm, yes, of course.” he nodded. Vilde was a director of school’s theatre club and she was so excited about their new production and Yousef really didn’t know how the hell did he forget about this. He should have remembered, he was helping them with choreography for the musical number after Act I. He really hoped he put a good poker face and Vilde hadn’t noticed he forgot about it.

“So, how’s it going?” she said sitting with a cup of tea across from him. He looked at her confused and she pointed at the papers he was checking.

“Ugh. Horrible. Please remind me once again why do I even work here?”

“Because they pay better than in the primary school?”

“Yeah, that’s probably it.”

And they needed money. Now that they were expecting twins they needed to find a new place more than ever. And obviously they could buy a bigger house for the reasonable amount of money, but Sana didn’t want to even hear anything about moving to another borough and it’s fair to say that living conditions in Briskeby were not the cheapest. And it wasn’t really like they couldn’t afford it, they would always somehow make ends meet, but Yousef always wanted the best for his family and he knew that three rooms and one bathroom for eight people will not be enough. That’s another reason why he was working on two shifts, after one of the teachers had a nervous breakdown shortly before Christmas he convinced the headmaster not to hire new teacher before the next year and he was now the substitute teacher for political and human rights. Which on the one hand was interesting to get a new perspective how his students think about everything that’s going on in the world right now, but the second shift also meant less time with his family and he hated that. But again – he needed extra money.

“So how is Sana doing?” Vilde asked.

“Uhm, she’s fine.”

“Yeah? So what? Just three more weeks?”

“Yeah. Or maybe even two. No one knows actually, with twins it can all happen much sooner.”

“I admire you guys.” Vilde sighed.

“You do?” Yousef asked confused.

“Yeah. I don’t know how I would be able to raise six kids. You’re superheroes, you know?”

 

He didn’t know. And he wasn’t sure they were able to raise six kids. He doubted that very much. He couldn’t believe how stupid he was when he once said he wanted to have twelve kids, that would be mission impossible. He was fine with just three, but Sana was teasing him all the time that she promised him they will have a basketball team and she never breaks her word. And then she got pregnant with their youngest girl. And Yousef really thought that’s it. But no. Few months ago when he came back home from work, Sana was waiting for him in the kitchen with dinner, kids were sleeping over at their grandparents’ house. He asked her what’s the occasion and she said that she just became the chief of cardiothoracic surgery department. He was so happy for her, he knew it was her dream for a long time, but soon he noticed that she wasn’t that happy after all.

“What is it? Aren’t you happy, Sana?”

“I am, I am, but… there’s one more thing…”

“What is it, Sana?”

“I’m pregnant with the twins.”

He was completely dumbstruck. He didn’t know what to say. It sort of became the unfortunate routine, actually, her getting pregnant every time she reached another milestone in her career. The first time she got pregnant was during her final year at the university. He was over the moon then, but she wasn’t as excited as he was – she was happy that they will have a baby, but that meant she would have to wait one more year to start her internship. Only after Isak said he’s going to take a year off after university to chill and help Even with his film, Sana started enjoying her pregnancy. She never wanted to admit this, but that was the only reason why she was so anxious about being pregnant then. Having a baby? No problem. Graduating from medical school top of her class just 4 weeks before the labour? She’s Sana freaking Bakkoush, she can do everything. But not starting her surgical internship with Isak Valtersen? Uh-uh, no way. Then after she finished the internship, Isak went on to start the residency program, while she took a year off – because she was pregnant with their son. Finished the residency? Second son was on the way. Finally passed the exams and was officially a cardiothoracic surgeon? Pregnant again. So when she told him she was pregnant with the twins now, he could only think about one thing.

“Sana, please swear to me that if you ever become the chief of surgery or the director of the hospital or whatever, just please promise me that you won’t come back home and tell me that we’ll be having triplets.”

She only laughed at that and now it’s six months later and soon there will be eight of them. And he had no idea how they will survive this. It was already hard with four kids. Last summer for the first time since forever they could fly over to Morocco for vacation. People had no idea how hard it was to travel with four kids, they had to book the whole row of seats on the plane. And now they would have to wait probably another two or three years to go anywhere abroad. But that didn’t really matter, he could survive without travelling and other stuff, he was more worried about how they would manage to take care of everything here and now. Sana would probably be on the maternity leave for a year, but knowing her she will definitely go back to work as soon as possible. And that means that she will start coming back home tired all the time and they will again only spend one day a week together as the family. And thank God, they’ll be having a boy and a girl, because if they were to have twin girls or twin boys? There was no way Sana would know who is who. He remembered one time when Sana came home after 20-hour shift at the hospital and when she laid down half-consciously in bed she just whispered “number 2 needs to go to the dentist and number 3 should be vaccinated soon.” When he teased her the next day that she doesn’t remember their kids names and thinks about them as numbers, he certainly did not expect to see that guilty look on her face. Which only confirmed that she indeed thinks about them as numbers.

“So that’s what we are to you, Sana? Just numbers? One, two, and three? And what am I then, Sana, huh? Am I a patient zero?”

She tried to explain herself, that she doesn’t think about them as numbers, it’s just that she needs to think about thousands of things a day and it makes her easier to remember everything, but this was a really weak explanation for Yousef. He then pulled his phone out of his pocket and showed her a picture of a baby and asked her which one is this. And when she replied – no actually, she didn’t reply, she _guessed_ – he was more pissed off her then before.

“Sana, this isn’t even our baby! This is the daughter of my cousin from Turkey! How can you not even know how your own kids look, Sana?”

They had a huge fight then, they never fought like this before. This was actually the only time they had a proper fight, they haven’t really talked with each other for the whole week, they were just muttering some things about who would pick the kids from the day care or who will go shopping. But after a week of quiet days, he couldn’t do this any longer and wanted to finally make up so he bought a bouquet of bluebells and some ingredients to prepare her favourite soup. But when he came back home, it turned out that she was already there, fixing dinner for them with their kids. The whole kitchen was a mess, kids were throwing flour at each other and if Yousef hadn’t helped them, they would definitely have had to order pizza instead of making one themselves. And he didn’t need to make that soup for Sana, because it turned out she already cooked it for them. It was the first time she actually cooked anything herself and he couldn’t have been more proud of her (even though it didn’t taste nearly as good as his mother’s). After the dinner they talked and promised each other not to fight again like that ever.

But now, few years later, he felt like they were in the exact same place as then. She was staying at home all days and he was working all the time, and that’s probably why she was so mad at him. She hated not doing anything. She wanted to work. She was working all the time as though nothing was going on until the fourth month, then she stopped operating, but was still working at the hospital for the next two months, until finally both Yousef and her OBG made her go on a leave. And he knew how much she hated that she is basically bedridden right now, but there was nothing he could do about that. All they could do was wait.

 

Vilde got up and put on her coat.

“Okay, I’m gonna get going. I want to visit Julie and Mari on my way home.”

“They’re still living with Magnus?”

“Yeah, it’s better this way. Now that Noora and Amalie are staying over at my place, we wouldn’t have enough space.”

“How’s it going with Noora? Has she talked with him?”

“Yeah, she did. He finally calmed down and let her go, so that’s good. But he also said he is going to fight for the custody over Amalie and Noora’s now terrified that she might lose her.”

“No, she won’t, everything will be fine. There’s no way any court would give him the sole custody.”

“That’s what I’ve been telling her, but she says that he has a lot of friends among the judges and she’s just so anxious about all of this that I don’t really know how to help her.”

“Just be there for her. That’s the only thing you can do.”

“I will be.” Vilde smiled and got to the door “Tell Sana I say hi, okay? And promise me that you won’t stay here too long.”

“Yes, professor Hellerud.” Yousef saluted and giggled.

“Goodnight, professor Acar.”

 

Yousef was really grateful for having a friend like Vilde. He was always jealous of Sana having Isak as her work buddy and since he started working at Nissen, he finally had one of his own. He never thought they would become so close with each other, after all she was Sana’s friend and not his, but she was the first person who helped him once he started working there. At the beginning she always asked him if he wants to go and eat the lunch with her and some other teachers and others would come and go, but he and Vilde would always have lunch together since then. They weren’t the closest friends ever, he still didn’t kind of understood what’s the whole deal between her and Magnus, though Isak tried to explain it to him once – they broke up after the end of high school because Vilde needed  space, she then took a gap year and apparently had some life changing experiences living in Barcelona for a year. Magnus was waiting for her all this time, but she came back to Oslo as a totally different person and told him that she still needs time to find herself and he deserves so much more than she can give him so she needs to let him go and he also has to let her go. Since then they haven’t really been in touch until a few years later they bumped into each other by accident and went on a coffee together. After that they started to talk with each other again and after Magnus confessed he still loves her after all this time, they promised each other that if none of them finds anyone before their 40th birthday they will get married. But after her 30th birthday, Vilde really started to envy Yousef and Sana and she wanted to have kids of her own, but she knew how it is to be raised by a single parent all too well and she didn’t want the same for her child and long story short now she has two beautiful daughters with Magnus and they are living across the street from each other. Yousef didn't know all the details, but it seemed like this arrangement fits them.

 

He tried to get back to grading the papers, but he couldn’t focus any more. He packed the essays to his backpack and decided to go home. On his way back he was trying to decode Sana’s message: did she want curry powder, Indian curry or Thai curry? He had no idea. He remembered there’s and Indian restaurant near the school so he went there and ordered one curry for take-out. If that’s not what she wanted, then he’ll eat it. But he really hoped he made a right guess.

 

When he came back home around 9 p.m., the TV set was playing really loudly and it’s fair to say that what he saw in the living room was beyond his expectations. Sana was sleeping on the couch, hugging the bowl with popcorn. Their oldest daughter was sleeping on the other couch, with her arms stretched she there was no space left on the couch. Their youngest one and boys were sleeping in front of Sana on the pool mattress that Elias bought for them and they insisted on inflating it three months before their summer vacation just to see if it’s comfortable. Apparently it is. Yousef smiled and pulled out his phone and took several pictures of his family and then made a selfie with them in the background. He is so gonna tease them about that tomorrow. He carried all his children, one by one, to their bedrooms. He would also take Sana to bed, but she was so heavy right now that it would be impossible to carry her there without waking her up. So he just covered her with the blanket and when he wanted to take the bowl from her hands, he heard her whisper:

“Nooo, that’s my popcorn.”

He just chuckled and kneeled in front of her. He could see how she sniffs her nose, she must have smelled the curry. She finally opened her eyes and smiled widely when she saw his face in front of her.

“Halla”

“Hey there” she whispered, stretching on the couch “What’s that smell?”

“Indian curry.” he said, raising the bag with the take-out “I wasn’t sure which one you want and it was too late to get all of them, so I thought I’ll get you the Indian one.”

“Good, because that’s exactly the one I wanted.”

And as soon as she smiled and he saw her dimples, he completely forgot why was he even angry at her in the first place.

**Author's Note:**

> Few final words (that probably no one will read but anyway):  
> First of all, may I just say that I absolutely love writing from Yousef's POV? Because it's either 'you are amazing and i love you so much' or 'i don't know why you did what you did and i'm angry at you but i love you and you have such a beautiful smile so i have to forgive you' and honestly??? SAME  
> Secondly, if anyone cares - Vilde is teaching English for social sciences and Yousef is teaching sociology and social anthropology (+ is a substitute teacher for political and human rights) - these are actual subjects at Nissen, I did my research.  
> And last but not least: I'M SORRY for what I did with Vilde's and Noora's storylines, I'm not sure if I like that either but it somehow did fit in the fic so yeah I had to do it but you can [come and yell at me ](vildeliens.tumblr.com)for that.


End file.
